Dead Man Walking: In-Class Write

1. What important knowledge and understanding about the history, culture, and/or experience of the united states can a person learn from watching the film?

A person can learn a lot about the history of the death penalty and just about the way that inmates are treated while they are on death row from watching this movie.  Also, you can learn how people with loved ones that have been murdered or have murdered someone deal with it.  The movie does a great job of portraying an inmate on death row with the use of Matthew Poncelet. He is on death row for the murder of a teenage boy and the rape and murder of a teenage girl.  He is sentenced and eventually put to death in the film.  The family of the teenagers that he killed takes the death of their children very hard (as any person would). The movie shows how badly they want him to die.  And also how badly other people want him to die.  This is important in the movie because although Matthew Poncelet did a very bad thing he is still a human. 

2. What important aspects of historical/cultural context or important facts that you learned about your research will a person NOT learn from watching the film?

From my research, I learned a lot about the history of the death penalty and the arguments that protesters are trying to make against it.  The movie doesn’t give any clear historical background about the death penalty and its constitutionality.  I learned that the American Civil Liberties Union believes that the death penalty inherently violates the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment. (The case against the death penalty).  The movie also does not show any of the real stories that the movie is based on.  The movie is based on 2 real serial killers named Patrick Sonnier and Robert Lee Willie.  They both committed very similar crimes. 

3. What historical events, people, details, conditions, or context would you suggest the filmmaker include?

I would create one scene at the beginning of the movie and then one more scene around the middle.  The scene at the beginning would be sort of a voiceover probably done by Susan Sarandon about the history, significance, and morality of the death penalty.  This would be a great contribution to the movie because there is no historical background of the death penalty anywhere in the movie.  In the middle of the movie, I would have a more in-depth protest scene.  Now there is a scene in the movie where people are protesting but it is a really short scene and it is kind of hard to identify what they are protesting.  I would maybe have someone speak against the death penalty and explain why they are doing what they are doing.  Also, maybe at the end, I’ll have a really short scene that shows the real story behind the movie.  It would contain pictures of the real killers and explain what they did and then say when they died.